April 24, 2014

NOT TO MENTION...:

In fact, fully contrary to the New York Times' whitewash, Garcia Marquez' "intercession" is what got some of those dissidents jailed and tortured by his friend Castro in the first place. Let's not mince words. Let's call out Garcia-Marquez categorically: on top of his decades of pro-bono propaganda services for Castroism, Garcia-Marquez was also a volunteer snitch for Castro's KGB-mentored secret police.

Here I'll turn over the floor to someone intimately familiar with the issue Armando Valladares, who himself suffered 22 torture-filled years in Castro's prisons and was later appointed by Ronald Reagan as U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Human Rights Commission:

"Many years ago Garcia Marquez became an informer for Castro's secret police," starts a recent expose' by Mr Valladares. "At the time, back in Havana, Cuban dissident and human-rights activist, Ricardo Bofill, with help of the then-reporter for Reuters, Collin McSevengy, managed to enter the Havana hotel where García Márquez was having a few drinks. In a quiet corner, with absolute discretion, Bofill gave García Márquez a series of documents relating to several Cuban artists.

A few weeks later Castro's police arrested Ricardo Bofill-and displayed on the table right next to Castro's secret-policeman -were the very documents which Bofill had given Garcia Marquez."

Bofill, a peaceful human-rights activist inspired by Gandhi and Martin Luther King, went on to suffer 12 years in Castro's prisons--thanks to Gabriel Garcia-Marquez. On October 13, 1968 the Spanish newspapers ABC and Diario 16, published Bofill's disclosures and headlined that: "García Márquez' revelations led to the imprisonment of numerous Cuban writers and artists." Seems all this was all conveniently "forgotten" by most media outlets last week.

But enough from me. Instead let's hear from some folks much closer to this issue. Let's hear from Cuban writers who were suffering in Castro's KGB-designed dungeons and torture chambers while Gabriel Garcia-Marquez contributed his literary influence and might towards glorifying their torturer.

The late Reynaldo Arenas' autobiography Before Night Falls was on the New York Times (no less!) list of the ten best books of the year in 1993. In 2000 the book became a movie starring Javier Bardem, Johnny Depp and Sean Penn (no less!) Throughout the 70's Arenas was jailed and tortured by Castro's police for his rebellious writings and gay lifestyle. He finally escaped on the Mariel boatlift tin 1980. Here's his take on Gabriel Garcia Marquez from 1982:

"It's high time for all the intellectuals of the free world (the rest don't exist) to take a stand against this unscrupulous propagandist for totalitarianism. I wonder why these intellectual apologists for communist paradises don't live in them? Or is it that they prefer collecting payment there and here, while enjoying the comforts and guarantees of the western world?"

In fact, Garcia-Marquez did live on and off in Cuba, in a (stolen) mansion Castro gifted him, where he frolicked with adolescent girls between traveling through Havana in a (stolen) Mercedes also gifted him by Castro.

"Only a five star-scoundrel would put his literary fame in the service of a cause as vile and malignant as the Castro tyranny. Simple frivolity cannot possibly justify an embrace so long and strong as the one Garcia-Marquez gave someone who devastated a nation, murdered thousands, jailed and tortured tens of thousands dispersed an entire nation and debased the rest."